Competitors trail behind as Safaricom continues to dominate telecommunication market

Safaricom’s dominance in the telecommunication sector in Kenya continues to grow according to a report by the Communications Authority of Kenya.

The Third Quarter Sector Statistics Report for the Financial Year 2024/2025, covering January 1 to March 31, 2025 revealed that Safaricom added 1.7 million mobile subscriptions by the end of March 2025, bringing its total to 48.2 million subscriptions.

This represents a growth of 3.6 per cent, maintaining the company’s market share of 62.9 per cent in subscriptions. Safaricom had over 48 million subscriptions followed by Airtel with over 24 million. On the other hand, Telkom and Equitel each had over one million subscribers while JTL attracted over 700, 000 subscriptions.

During the said period, the country’s mobile voice and SMS traffic by Safaricom grew by 4.77 per cent from the last quarter, reaching 18.3 billion units. Nonetheless, the firm’s closest competitor, Airtel, reached 10.4 billion units.

Fixed Data Subscriptions

Fixed data subscriptions by Safaricom rose by 9.17 per cent to stand at 678,118 connections, reflecting continued growth in home and business internet services.

However, Elon Musk’s Starlink had its market share decline to just 0.9 per cent, signaling a slower uptake of the satellite internet service in Kenya.

Starlink’s adoption in the country caused a stir in the past months with new users praising it for being more affordable and connecting those in rural areas to the web. Its introduction on the market had the telecommunication giant, Safaricom call for collaboration in the sector to benefit customers.

On the national level, the mobile phone penetration rate reached  139.8 per cent, comprising 80.5 per cent for smartphones and 59.3 per cent for feature phones.

Top 10 Operators by Fixed Internet Subscriptions

The list of top 10 providers of fixed internet services has Safaricom taking the lead with over 600,000 subscriptions. Jamii Telecommunications LTD takes the second slot with over 400,000, while Wananchi Group (Kenya) Ltd had over 267,000.

Poa Internet came fourth with over 261,000 subscriptions, Vilcom Network Limited fifth with over 71,000.

The remaining five companies had subscriptions in the tens of thousands. They include Mawingu Networks Ltd, Dimensions Data Solutions East Africa Ltd, Starlink Internet Services Kenya, Liquid Telecommunications Kenya, and Vijiji Connect LTD.